i have lost a lot of weight by just running and dont eat a healthy diet. so i dont know what the books say, but if you get cardio exercise youre going to lose weight. i was starting to get fatter than i liked so i started running and it worked, and pretty fast too, and now i actually enjoy doing it. i know a lot of people who go on diets and dont lose weight like i did. i dont eat like a pig but i dont avoid fried food, deserts sugar red meat or anything like that. honestly you can be in shape and eat what you want if you are reasonable, of course you are going to need discipline dont go on food binges. so anyway, in spite of what people are saying about diet, i have known a lot of people who say they are going to go on diets to lose weight, and they dont ever end up sticking to them, and if this is something to stick with, think about it, doing a daily workout routine is a lot easier to stick to for many many years than eating a stick of celery for dinner every night for thirty years or drinking that shitty ass carb free beer for years. at least thats how i look at it.